Pets
by shadowphantomness
Summary: Sayu knew things would get worse when her father brought the scruffy black kitten home... Light x Mikami, Lbashing...


…

Title: Pets

Author: Shadow/Phantomness

Pairing: Light/Mikami

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Death Note. If I _did_, the ending would be vastly different! Death Note belongs to Ohba and Obata, and I don't make any profit from writing fanfic.

Notes: AU. Fluff. Crack. Kittens.

Warnings: Character Death

"I'm home!" Sayu called, as she walked into the house. There was no response. Dad was still off working on some new case or another, and her mom had left a note on the kitchen table – out shopping, along with a plate of freshly baked cinnamon cookies. She smiled upon reading the note, took three cookies, and climbed upstairs to find the family pets.

Light was sitting stiffly on top of her Algebra book, tail curled neatly around his body. She stroked his head, which he allowed for a moment before he jumped away, landing on the carpet next to the room's other occupant. Mikami gave her a half-lidded look, as Light curled up next to him.

She reached down and patted him on the head, admiring his cocoa brown eyes. It always amused her to no end how well they seemed to get along together. Light was as arrogant as a cat could be, with smooth, sleek ginger fur, while Mikami seemed to be an overly calm black Labrador.

She sighed as she finished her cookies and began to work on her algebra homework. She was halfway done when she heard the sound of her mother coming home.

"Sayu-chan! Come down and help me unload the groceries!"

"Coming, kaasan!" She called, putting her pen down and racing downstairs. She cheered up when she saw several boxes of Pocky, stuffed the vegetables into the crisper drawer, waved off the questions about how school was going, and then went back upstairs. Light and Mikami still hadn't moved, and she shook her head in amusement before trying to tackle the quadratic equations again.

It was after dinner when the bomb dropped. Soichiro had come home late, which all in itself was not that unexpected, but the stray black kitten he brought home was.

"Dear," Sachiko said, eying the scruffy lump of fur in his arms.

Soichiro sighed. "I know." He said. "But I found him pawing through a donut box on the way home, and I just couldn't leave him."

Sachiko smiled, shaking her head at how softhearted he was. "Well, I suppose that we can give him a bath first…"

She cut off as the kitten jumped onto the kitchen table and started attacking Sayu's slice of strawberry cake. The girl just stared, stunned, before she went upstairs to find Light and Mikami.

She found Mikami lying on his back while Light groomed the patch of white fur on his chest, purring.

"So that's where all the black and white hairballs are coming from…" She muttered. "Listen you two, things are going to start changing around here…"

Mikami cracked open an eye at her, while she pulled Light off, earning a displeased hiss. "Come on downstairs, guys. We have to introduce you to the newest member of the family!"

Standing, the dog trooped down the stairs after her as she walked into the kitchen. Her cake was beyond rescuing, and Soichiro and Sachiko were both working over a struggling form in the sink.

"What are we going to name him, dear?" Sachiko asked, eying the wet kitten. They seemed to have gotten most of the dust and grime out of his coat, though he was still quite scrawny. A few good meals would take care of that.

"Hmm," Soichiro said. "L."

"L?"

"It just seemed to fit." The man said. He made a grab for L as the kitten slipped out of his grasp and made a beeline for the kitchen table again.

Mikami went wild, barking madly, while Light hissed and jumped out of Sayu's arms. This was _his _family, _his _territory!

Strangers would not be tolerated.

The air filled with flying ginger and black fur, as well as deafening noises.

"Sayu! We were going to wait until L got settled in a bit!" Sachiko said.

"And you! What's gotten into you?" Soichiro asked, grabbing Mikami's collar. The dog yelped in indignation as the police chief shook his head.

"If you can't behave yourself, you'll have to stay outside!"

Mikami growled softly, but quieted down. Moments later, Light stalked away from L, head and tail held high.

The kitten gave all assembled an inscrutable look.

Sachiko sighed.

Two weeks had passed in… relative harmony. Soichiro had locked Mikami outside after he had caught sight of him terrorizing the kitten and now, Light was sulking, _brooding_ even, and spending all his time staring wistfully at his playmate from the window ledge.

Sayu had tried cheering him up with treats, but it hadn't worked well. And he and L still weren't getting along.

Light was very possessive, for a cat.

When Soichiro caught Light dragging the spare door keys from his room towards the yard, he had to admit that perhaps he had misjudged feline intelligence and innocence.

Sachiko told them her plan the next day, and they agreed that it was worth a try.

Matsuda returned L after he found his bunny, Misa, wrapped in a sheet and trying to get free. What really irked him was that it took him three days to find her.

Aiber's cat, Wedy, got along quite well with L. But when he discovered she was going to have kittens, he decided that perhaps things had gone on long enough.

He ate all of Namikawa's tropical fish, specially imported by Yotsuba Co., and even Higuchi, the exotic sea slug he had been studying.

Ryuk's poodle, Rem, kept trying to kill him. However, L gave as good as he got and both wound up being sent to the vet.

Demegawa's boa constrictor, Takada, plain ignored him. It was Demegawa who had issues when his cheesecake went missing three days in a row.

Sayu was getting desperate. Maybe Light and Mikami had calmed down enough for L to come home?

She didn't want to try Watari – he had enough pets, and his two guinea pigs, Near and Mello, were always squabbling. Adding L to the mix would just make things worse.

Mogi's apartment didn't allow pets, and Aizawa's chameleon, Ide, got nervous around L.

It seemed that it was time for L to return.

Sachiko vacuumed up the flying fur, shook her head, and decided to just leave them to their own devices. Six weeks later, after L had made himself at home (she had sent Light and Mikami to stay with Ryuk and Rem, just temporarily), she found him having convulsions on the carpet while two pairs of red eyes watched.

The vet arrived too late to save him, and concluded that the heart failure had been caused by all the sweets L had been sneaking. Cats weren't supposed to eat those things, after all, and who knew what he'd been living off of on the streets…?

Soichiro shed a few tears, and resolved not to bring home strays any more.

Sayu was sad, but she still _had_ two pets, though she wondered how Light and Mikami's eyes had both changed color to red.

End fic

Completed 6/20/07

Inspired by the most adorable pics of kitty! Light and puppy! Mikami in my doujinshi… and did I mention I don't like L? I'm _sorry_ L fans, but I just can't stand him.


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